Swim Lessons for Heidi and Mason

Heidi started out in level one for her first set of swim lessons, but was clearly ready for level 2 and so for the second set she moved up and really did a great job at swimming.  She just needs to combine her kicking and arm movement to move up to level 3...so I guess we will be working on that a lot.  I figure the faster we can get her to the swim team the better (so much easier on scheduals!).  Mason just started level 1 for the first time and he did a great job, swimming with someone other than mommy!  He had so much fun being in the water, and it is so hard to sit and watch Emma and Madison swim everyday.  Now it is finally his turn!!!  He did a great job, just not so ready to jump into the water to someone else.  He is only 2 and a half and normally the start age is 3, but since he is potty trained and listens so well they let him start early.  Yay for us :) 

I threw one in of Madison on the swim team :)



Mason didn't want to jump off the diving board so he tried to go off the ledge.



Heidi had no problem jumping off the diving board!

Progress Days Parade!

So last weekend was Soldotna's Prgress Days, which makes for a very busy tourist weekend, and this year was no exception.  Except for this year the "red salmon" run came in that week, and so instead of maybe 5000 fish running up the river there was 400,000 fish running up the river in a day.  Because of this "running of the reds" we went from having 10,000 people in town to having 20-30,000 in town!!!  The streets were overflowing with people and cars and it was downright insane!  Our family tries to avoid going to town when such events occur, just because it really is not very much fun.  However my friend asked if we wanted to go to the parade, and since the kids are of the age to enjoy such things I thought it was about time we attended it! Much fun was had by all and  they came home with a grocery sack full of candy and smiles on their faces. 

This little thing was only 7 weeks old and the kids were begging me for one of their own! LOL

Our adventure in Homer started out a windy one, as we set our tents up and prepared dinner.  We actually did not do much in the evening because of the wind.  As the night fell upon us and the wind swept over the ocean it made the temperature pretty cold and a little misserable to be out by the fire.  Farrah and I started putting kids to bed around 9:30 and the last one fell asleep by 10:50.  I drove into town to get bowls that I had forgetten at home and some cough medicine for my kids.  I finally fell asleep by 12:30 and slept pretty soundly through the night.  A few of my kids thought they would try to get up at 6:30 but I made them stay in the tent until 7:45, and by then it was starting to become sunny and there wasn't any wind!  We had breakfast and sat and stared at the ocean and enjoyed the sun coming out of the clouds and warming the sand and rocks on the beach.  The kids played down in the water and found all kinds of sea life, before we packed our tents up and headed to the shops for a bit of shopping.  By 12:30 I was getting tired and run down, so the kids and I got some coffee and headed home, but my friend Farrah and her kids had another adventure on their own, which I wish we would have stayed for!  The played on the beach some more, found some hermit crabs and brought a few home to watch grow their new homes, and found wild strawberries to pick and eat!  They did not get home until 11:30 last night but had one of the best times in Homer that they had had in a long time!!!

Driving to Homer while the clouds are moving in.



Eagle at our campsite picking up some seaweed to take back to his nest.



Looking accross the bay from the Homer Spit



Eating dinner and dessert :)



the tents by the ocean



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Some of the little shops that line the beach of the spit.




Making breakfast



My little princess is not quite awake :)

Friend Luthien is holding seaweed!

Mason rolls out of bed finally :)

Momma Eagle with 2 babies in her nest!

Our adventure #4 Quartz Creek

On Wednesday my friend Farrah and I headed to Cooper Landing to a little campground called Quartz Creek.  It sits along the edge of Kenai Lake, and so we made a few snacks to bring with us to have a picnic, sit on the rocky beach, throw rocks, and do some wading.  After that we went on a bike ride around the campground and then came back for some cake, more wading and more throwing rocks before packing up and heading home.  The day was nice and sunny and even quite hot and we enjoyed every minute of it!

Kenai Lake

getting ready to bike

you can see that Farrah has dessert by the crowded circle of kids! :)

all that was left of mason by the end of the day......aka swimming sans clothes :)

Halibut/Silver Salmon Fishing Trip in Seward Alaska

Thursday Chad, our friends Gary and Judy Anderson, Craig and Catherine went halibut fishing in Seward.  They left at 4:30am to get to the boat by 6:30am for an early start, and got in to Seward by 5:30 that evening.  Crystal and I along with 7 of our 11 kids (4 of them were at primary camp) drove to Seward at 2pm so we could do a little hike and play at the playground before we met up with the fishing crew.  We did a little hike to see Exit Glacier (1 mile) and we thought about doing a longer one, but decided the kids would have more fun at the park.  We were there only a few minutes when the guys called and said they were in and to hurry over to the filleting tables.   Catherine had caught the biggest fish of the group and it weighed in at 74lbs and they wanted us the kids to see it before they cut it all up!  The group caught all their halibut but one, and they were able to get their limit in silver salmon as well!  When the fish was taken in to be packaged we headed out to eat and then picked up the fish and headed home!  The kids and the adults were tired and all went straight to bed! :)

P.S. I gave Chad the camera so he could take pictures of the trip.....and well he missed the whales and pretty much everything else, so I probably wont be giving him the camera again any time soon! LOL

Catherine smiling about her catch

The gang with their fish....well most of it at least!

Mount Marathon